[BlindMath] Question about electronics safety in the lab

[Steve Jacobson]

Sabra,

Perhaps this has already been explored, but one would need to know which
tools the other students are allowed to use in the lab, if any, and what
sort of general policy covers the usage.  If other students are required to
take lab notes using a pencil and paper and if only specific electronic
measuring instruments are permitted, possibly a handheld voice recorder
would be acceptable to record notes that can be transcribed later, if the
student does not know braille.  If other students are allowed to use some
kind of electronic devices or have access to lab computers, looking into
whether these computers could be made accessible might be a path to follow.
It is hard to make recommendations, though, without knowing more
information.  On the surface, this seems like a restrictive policy, but to
fairly assess it we would need to know more.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson
 
-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Sabra Ewing via
BlindMath
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2019 11:32 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sabra Ewing <sabra1023 at gmail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] Question about electronics safety in the lab

I am trying to help a blind person on Facebook who has a question about
using her iPad and a science lab. She has a science major and will be doing
a lot of lab related work, but the college is saying that she can't use her
iPad in the lab because of safety issues. A lot of people on the thread got
very mad, miss quoted laws, and was all saying that the college is trying to
deny any education. The people on the thread got mad at me for saying that
even if the college did have a bad track record in the past, they might not
actually be making this one up. There really could be a safety risk with
having electronics devices in a laboratory. On the other hand, they can't
just say that you can't have access to the information, so what do you do? I
know that electricity is used in the labs all the time, but I can see how
having something like an iPad with you on the lab table could get kind of
risky. I thought about maybe that she could keep the device in another room
and just switch between that one in the lab, but then that can be kind of
hard if you needed to take notes or access information while working with
chemicals at the same time. It says very clearly on many of these electrical
devices that you are not supposed to use them near flaming liquids or
chemicals, and some labs could meet that requirement. Even when I was in
high school, they said that I could not have electronics with me in the lab
area, but high school is nothing like a college environment. I was doing
some research and apparently, there are specially certified electronics that
are certified to be around flame and not produce a small electrical sparks
that could start a fire, but I don't know if the iPad is one of those
devices and if not, is there a computer or a tablet or a keyboard or
something else that is one of those certified devices that you could use
instead. Or would that not matter at all because maybe they are saying they
don't want you bringing your own electronics into the lab because they are
worried about chemical or bacterial contamination from the same device
switching between the lab and the rest of the school like if you are growing
a virus or something, you get the virus on your device, and then you spread
it. Or maybe tiny chemical particles get into the device without you
realizing it, and then you plug it in or something and there is a reaction.
I would like to think that maybe they aren't using such dangerous chemicals
in a college setting, but maybe they are. I know for sure that the most
dangerous part is definitely the battery because even if it's not plugged
in, chemicals could still get in there and it could react with the battery.
So are there actually legitimate concerns here, or is the college just
implementing a very inflexible policy that they are refusing to adjust for a
person with a disability?

Sabra Ewing
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